Release Notes version 1.16

Release NotesRPR v1.16 Released October 19, 2012

In version 1.16, Realtors Property Resource unveils a powerful new tool for analyzing residential properties using comps, and expands access to our beta Commercial service to all RPR users—residential and commercial—for an open beta test. We hope you will try the new application features described in these Release Notes. If you want more help learning to use the new features, please visit http://blog.narrpr.com/training/.

1) Comp Analysis Tool

Previously, RPR’s comps functionality was tied to automated valuations. We heard from many users who wanted more flexibility to use recent sales, neighborhood listings and their own knowledge to arrive at a prospective price analysis for a property. So we created a new tool that we hope you will find both powerful and easy to use.

The Comp Analysis is a step-by-step wizard that walks users through the process to validate basic facts about a subject property, select comps and adjust those comps to yield a customized and flexible Comp Analysis Result. You do not have to use as comps any of the properties calculated in the AVM or RVM® estimated home value, although you can still see these properties. And you have the flexibility to enter a Recommended Price that may be derived from, or completely independent of, any comps calculation. We hope this new tool will be a great help in pricing discussions with clients and in generating price ranges that are both quantitative—based on comps and market information—as well as qualitative—reflecting the user’s knowledge of the property, the neighborhood and the market.

The new tool is accessed from the Property Details page of any property. Look for the “Comp Analysis” tab or the blue “Comp Analysis” button.

The tool includes four easy steps to arrive at a result. First, you will validate the facts for the property (in order to perform a high-quality comps search); then search for comps (based on the adjusted property facts); adjust the comps; and, in the final step, prepare the comparative analysis. Here are more details on each step:

Confirm the Home Facts: Verify or modify the facts, like living area and number of rooms, about the subject property. These facts will be used to search for comps. The facts you change are highlighted in blue.

Search for Comps: Using the custom search tools shown to the left of the map, you can select the right comps for the subject property. You will find significant improvements in your ability to search for comps in RPR, including map searching, and narrowing your search based on sales timeframe, listing status, beds and baths or living area, and many other parameters to really fine-tune your search. Comps returned in this search that were also used in the AVM or RVM® calculation are flagged with a star but are not weighted differently than any other comp. Select the comps you want to include in your analysis by checking them off the list or selecting the map pin bubbles on the area map. In addition, if you have a specific property in mind, you can choose it directly by entering its street address. When you are done, you will see your selected comps display in the sidebar list to the right of the comps search results.

Make Adjustments: After selecting comps, you can adjust their impact on the subject property by rating their condition. The comps you chose are presented in a grid. Within this grid, you can rate each comp relative to the subject property to adjust the weighting of how a comp is factored into the analysis. Your changes are previewed on this page, so you can see their effect before you complete them.

Review the Result: If you’re not satisfied with the result in the third step, you can easily override it by entering your own number in the fourth (and final) step. You might wish to round the number up or down, or you may have a price in mind that you want to present your client. You can also enter a range that is narrower or broader than the one generated by the tool, or not show a range at all (by entering your own price but leaving the range fields blank).

If you bypass this step, your result from step 3—a number and a range—appear in reports you generate. You will also see the result on the Property Details page. If you complete step 4, your new number, and a range if you enter one, appear in those locations.

For agents, the Comp Analysis tool’s advantage is the ability to more precisely pinpoint a price range for clients who are buying or selling or selling a property. Your analysis will be preserved for 30 days, after which we encourage you to update it. New property data may have superseded the information you used to create your analysis.

Note that you can still view the neighborhood sales and competitive listings used in the AVM or RVM calculation, which is now completely separate from the Comp Analysis function. A new pop-up window allows you to view the properties used to calculate the estimated home value. You will see the subject property’s estimate, estimate range, confidence score, date of the estimate, and a list and map of all the sales and listing information for the other properties.

If you want to refine the automated estimate to reflect home improvements, market conditions and other factors, you will still use the Refine Value tab on the Property Details page. In a future release, we will be updating this tool with exciting new functionality, as well.

2) Open Beta Test for Commercial Service

Any RPR user can now try out RPR’s Commercial service during an open beta test beginning with this release. Follow the link from the website header to reach the Commercial site, which will look familiar to anyone who uses the residential service. Many of the property and search features are the same, although the Commercial service has a different set of analytical tools.

We welcome users to try out the Commercial functionality. We suggest exploring three core functions: searching for properties and viewing property details; analyzing a market area; and running reports. For more information about any of these functions, please visit our Commercial Knowledge Base forum: http://support.narrpr.com/categories/20050547-commercial-knowledge-base.

Search tools

All Properties search returns commercial public records data, available across the United States.

Listings Only search returning listing data is available in select markets that have been participating in RPR Commercial Beta testing: Charlotte, NC; Northern California; Sarasota and Tampa, FL; and Miami, FL.

Property Details pages expand on the facts of any property.

Save Search preserves a specific property to view again later.

Analysis tools

Help a business owner find the best place to locate using demographic, psychographic and spending data to identify areas with the most target customers for the business.

Help a business owner find the best place to locate based on an analysis of spending data and customer demand within a drive time, radius or area.

Help a real estate owner determine what business would be appropriate for a given location by looking at the spending data compared with customer demand to see what business types are underserving the area.

Thematic maps

Explore about 20 different demographic and spending data aspects for people in any part of the country.

Use your results to start a search or analysis.

Generate a report

Commercial Property Report: a summary of a commercial property and its history.

Commercial Trade Area Summary Report: a summary of the demographics and economics of a trade area that you choose.

Commercial Trade Area Analysis: a printable format of your trade area analysis using demographic and psychographic data for multiple trade areas.

Other improvements

This release contains a number of improvements to RPR reports, including the display in the Seller’s Report of Refine Value changes made to a property and school data in the Property Report. You can see school information, test scores and parent reviews and ratings for schools that can be associated with a subject property.

In addition, we added a “Did You Mean” function to the address field in the Reports tab and comps search, for those cases when the property address you enter does not quite match our records, but we have similar addresses from which you can choose. This should make it easier to locate the property you have in mind.

Coming soon

On November 1, all REALTORS® will have access to RPR®, regardless of MLS participation. Learn more by visiting http://blog.narrpr.com/national-launch. Also, if you’ll be attending the NAR Annual Conference and Expo in Orlando, make sure to stop by the RPR booth, #745.

For more detail and support, please review the articles here in the RPR Knowledge Base or contact the Help Desk at 877-977-7576. We welcome your feedback directly from the RPR website (click the “Talk to Us” link on any page) or by calling the Help Desk.